Hairy Asian Experiences - GreyJoy (J) vs. Q-Ball (A)

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: obvert

Chinese industry may help a bit. Once you aren't building any forts there and the troops aren't in continuous use fighting, then the supply drain could be lessened and China could be a supply + rather than a minus. Taking Chunking would be useful for this obviously.

True, very true... but Chungking isn't doable for me at the moment. I need to move out asap all those LCUs and i cannot efford a urban battle against a fully stacked Chungking...simply too many supplies needed to feed my LCUs and to lower disctruction/disablement levels... i'll have to leave it as it is and use it as a training ground for my bombers to keep it closed. Nothing more unfortunately

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

April 8 1943....[>:]

Hmm, thats what? 45-50 Hellcats already? [:D]

Don't remember me!!! [:D]

Yup, in a couple of months he'll have all his CVs equipped with Hellcats, along with them fully repaired...i know... can't do much about it.

However the Hellcat isn't unbeatable. It comes with huge numbers, true, but Brad already have his pools full of planes (can't say but i think he lost something like 30 P-40K so far... so he must have HORDES of them...and the P-40K is just as good as the Hellcat)

But doesn't really matter... To use his Hellcats he will have to come to me...and i will be waiting.

[GreyJoy]

April 8 - 9, 1943

Brad is launching his first counter offensives...and he's hitting hard!

SOUTHERN DEI:

On the night of the 8th April, 2 strong allied SAG, supported by 2 8-PTs TFs, managed to penetrate unseen my early detection system and arrived at Lautem bay (Timor), sinking 2 CMs (we have already run short of CMs all over the map[:(]) and bombed Lautem base, destroying 20 planes on the ground and badly damaging the air strip. These two TFs were composed by modern Cleveland Class CLs and by British CAs, supported by fletcher DDs... we didn't have our usual DD TF in place cause we sent it back to refuel at Kendari...

The following day (8th April) 100 4Es, escorted by 50 P-38s, smashed the base. Our CAP was in bad condition cause most of our fighters were damaged during the night. Nonetheless we destroyed 18 enemies, losing 10 planes in A2A combat, plus more 15 on the ground.

On the 9th several empty barges TFs appeared at Selroe and Saumlaki, along with 2 PT TFs...i hate these useless TFs that create only chaos!
However, today Brad wanted to put an end to Lautem: 32 Corsairs came sweeping, followed by 30 P-38s. We did fight well against the corsairs, killing 8 of them, but when the P-38s arrived my situation was already too desperate and the morale of my fighter pilots too low... the day ended with 22 planes lost in A2A against 10 of his own (only 6 pilots killed thou, not bad!). The 4Es followed and smashed again my base which is now closed. My fighters have been moved to Dili but i need to rotate my groups cause the morale is really too low to fight now.


SOUTHERN SOLOMONS:

We have clearly seen that something was up at Ndeni and Lungaville...several fighters and bombers groups appeared in the last week, along with an encreasing number of ships at Ndeni and Lungaville... today we had the confirmation: enemy barges (or LST, don't know for sure) unloaded troops at Karaikira, while 60 4Es attacked Lunga, unopposed. So he's up a compaign in the Solomons...


SOUTHERN MARSHALLS:

At Araroe something is still happening. He's reconning heavily Tarawa and the 110 fighters remain CAPping at Araroe, along with several ships...




So, how should i reply to these movements? Well, untill his CVs pops up again, i won't go unbalancing. The plan remain the same: create and fortify the key areas. If he wants to advance in the Solomons...well, he's welcome to try it... it takes months to advance with frog leaps there and we're already in April 1943...it's a long way to Tokyo. Same for Tabiutea: does he want to make frog leaps there? He's more than welcome. Tarawa and Makin are two fortresses and soon Kusiae and Ponape will be too. After Tabiutea he will need months of heavy bombing campaigns and he will have to risk some major amphib landings...and the clock is running fast.



He's also up to something in Burma: he's bombing campaign against Mytikina continues but he's moving troops. From Akyab area he's extracting at least 2 armoured units and so from Kalemyo... repositioning... i'll have to keep an eye on these movements.


At Christmas Is. his bombings stopped and now i have a working strip once again, with 42 fighters defending the base. good.

In China our 3 tank divisions are marching to Shangai for being extracted from the theatre and sent to the DEI, while the tank regiments will be sent to the pacific.
The fightings for shrinking his central perimeter continue... we're obtaining good odds in our attacks but it takes forever to force those corps to surrender!

[GreyJoy]

Kuriles: Brad stopped reconning the bases there. This doesn't sound right to me... As soon as the enemy doesn't seem to care for a specific area i get concerned. I'm sending more supplies there and the training groups are being upgraded to Kates and Judys ( i was using older models for training) and to Oscar IIb. 12 more G3M3s are being moved there to boost my naval search abilities ( now i have 9 mavis and 6 emilies up there).

24 more Nells are moved to Centpac for naval search and 36 more are deployed to north and western sumatra. The first defence is naval search!

The first group of Frances is almost ready to be deployed. I will be using them at Ambon for the moment.
The amagi and Unryu joined the KB today and are immediately incorporated at Truk with Tahio.
1 CV and 2 CVLs started today their upgrades, along with 12 More DDs, 2CAs and 1 CS. Good, i badly needed some AA upgrades.

Thinking about trying a new ambush in Burma...

[GreyJoy]

Apr 10, 43

Bad days for the empire.

The allies started to move...and they move fast!

SOUTHERN DEI: This time he targetted Dili, where my air force from the Lautem disaster have moved. Simply too many enemy planes...4Es heavily escorted and more 50 P-38s on sweep. Losses are severe and Dili AF is closed, along with Roti and Lautem...Timor is a isolated fortress now...

The problem ain't our air losses...problem is that once an AF is damaged we don't have enough engineers to repair it quickly...so a single raid is enough to close it for weeks... The lack of engineers for Japan in this mod is really kicking in now.


SOUTHERN SOLOMONS:

The enemy conquered Karaikira and bombed again with 100 4Es Lunga.

SOUTHERN GILBERTS:

The enemy is moving with LSTs to Tabiutea. We sunk one of those pesky bastards with a sub...but this won't stop them...

Still no sign of the enemy CVs...


A huge convoy moved north from Port Hedland....another trap it seems...


BURMA:

He keeps on bombing Mitikina without mercy with 400 planes every day



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on Dili , at 71,115

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 79 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 24 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 29
A6M5 Zero x 27
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 11

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 29
B-24D Liberator x 28
P-38F Lightning x 46
P-38G Lightning x 25
F4F-4 Wildcat x 28

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3a Zero: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 8 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 1 destroyed by flak
P-38F Lightning: 2 destroyed
P-38G Lightning: 1 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat: 4 destroyed

Japanese ground losses:
8 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Airbase hits 18
Airbase supply hits 10
Runway hits 68

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on Dili , at 71,115

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 56 NM, estimated altitude 33,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 9
A6M5 Zero x 7
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 2

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 45

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3a Zero: 3 destroyed
A6M5 Zero: 3 destroyed
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 1 destroyed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Arorae at 138,136

Japanese Ships
SS I-162

Allied Ships
LST-450, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
LST-459
LST-456
AM Motive

Allied ground losses:
31 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled



Lost 40 planes today and 8 pilots (6 were crack ones[:(]).

Don't know if i can recover at Timor...

[ny59giants]

Olorin (Nick) is starting to complain about the P-38s in our game which is still in 11/42. Brad got the newer B-24s in 2/43 in increasing numbers so you will start to feel the pain now. The lack of construction engineers in the southern SRA and no rails to get damaged planes out really hurts you.

Use Transport TF to go pick up and move your damaged aircraft to safer locations to recover. Leaving them where they are will result in them just being destroyed.

[GreyJoy]

Micheal, what really worries me isn't the loss of planes...is the lack of engineers and the fact that my AFs will remain close for weeks after a single attack!
Brad has done a good job, really. He started to close minor undefended AFs and then started to concentrate on the main ones, using masses of A/Cs and naval bombings. He's preparing the way for his invasions....

[ny59giants]

Looked up your OOB for this mod and the best construction engineer units seem to be the "Ind Engr Rgt" and "Field Construction Battalion." Each comes out with about 35 engineers and vehicles total. Thus, you would need about 4 of them at each of your major bases to keep them open. You don't have the numbers to make that happen and continue to build up a defensive line. I wish I could offer you some advice on how to overcome it, but the numbers are not there. [:(]

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Micheal, what really worries me isn't the loss of planes...is the lack of engineers and the fact that my AFs will remain close for weeks after a single attack!
Brad has done a good job, really. He started to close minor undefended AFs and then started to concentrate on the main ones, using masses of A/Cs and naval bombings. He's preparing the way for his invasions....

Although I feel for you and hate to see you get pounded, this sounds so more more like the historical reality, that what happens in the stock scenarios. The Allies reached a point where they could focus on and close just about any base that they wanted. I don't know if it makes for a fun or even balanced game but I like the flavor.

[GreyJoy]

Things keep on going from bad to worse.

April 11 1943

While the 4Es paid visit again against Lautem and Lunga/Tulagi, we tried to counterattack. Results. Were awful.

The enemy landed in force at Tabiutea. Our planes took off from Tarawa and Makin.... A slaughterhouse. Not a single hit and 60 between bombers and zeros shot down.

At Karaikira we went in with 60 planes on. Sweep from Munda and Russell island. We found P38s and P40s. Another slaughterhouse.
Then we send our bombers in.... Several more are shot down and pnly an APA is hit and sunk, while the CAs covering the landings went away without a scratch.

Overall the enemy conquered Tabiutea and estabilished a strong force at Karaikira, while Timor is in tatters.... 100 planes lost for no gain, against only 7 oh his own....60 pilots lost...a disaster

I'm trying to find some reserves to stop the tide...but i simply lack the numbers of engineers...of AA units...of air units... As Micheal just said: numbers are against us...as it should be.

From now on it will be a slow, bloody, sad retreat....

[JohnDillworth]

What's the Air Skill level of the leader of the intercepting fighters?

[jeffk3510]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

ORIGINAL: jeffk3510

Do you mind posting a ship loss screen?

Thanks Penguin Dude

Hi Jeff! Everything's fine? Hope so!

Here u go...

The list is FOW affected obviously... i've just had confirmation that Wasp survived to the subs attack of some months ago (two fuel storage explosions!!) and i bet that only Ent went down during the last carrier battle. So i can confirm 1 CV, 2 CVEs and proably 7 BBs... the rest if FOW. While the cruisers list should be correct.

I've lost way too many DDs (only 2 Kagero are really worth thou) during the early stages of the war... but now i managed to accelerate a lot of them and i feel pretty safe on that sector.

Only 2 big tankers lost so far and 1 AO (which exploded for no reason in the middle of the ocean). The xAKs lost are mainly those devoted to CS convoys...nothing vital.

Everything is going great. Thank you for asking. Appreciate the screen

[jrcar]

Once the air balance tips it goes bad to worse quickly. Best is to pull back and spend time regrouping... and digging the next 3 lines of defence!

Then look for places you can nibble at him... you can't stop him, but if you can hurt him without taking big losses yourself you will slowly slow him down... This is a bit like playing the Allies in early 1942, except you have two game years of it rather than the Allies 6 months!

Cheers

Rob

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Things keep on going from bad to worse.

April 11 1943

While the 4Es paid visit again against Lautem and Lunga/Tulagi, we tried to counterattack. Results. Were awful.

The enemy landed in force at Tabiutea. Our planes took off from Tarawa and Makin.... A slaughterhouse. Not a single hit and 60 between bombers and zeros shot down.

At Karaikira we went in with 60 planes on. Sweep from Munda and Russell island. We found P38s and P40s. Another slaughterhouse.
Then we send our bombers in.... Several more are shot down and pnly an APA is hit and sunk, while the CAs covering the landings went away without a scratch.

Overall the enemy conquered Tabiutea and estabilished a strong force at Karaikira, while Timor is in tatters.... 100 planes lost for no gain, against only 7 oh his own....60 pilots lost...a disaster

I'm trying to find some reserves to stop the tide...but i simply lack the numbers of engineers...of AA units...of air units... As Micheal just said: numbers are against us...as it should be.

From now on it will be a slow, bloody, sad retreat....

[kjnoel]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Micheal, what really worries me isn't the loss of planes...is the lack of engineers and the fact that my AFs will remain close for weeks after a single attack!

What size are you building your airfields to? As you have so few engineers I would think it would pay to keep them as small as possible. You can't base hundreds of aircraft at a small airfield of course but if you can't defend them anyway, better to have many small dispersed airfields. Smaller they are, the quicker to repair.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: kjnoel

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Micheal, what really worries me isn't the loss of planes...is the lack of engineers and the fact that my AFs will remain close for weeks after a single attack!

What size are you building your airfields to? As you have so few engineers I would think it would pay to keep them as small as possible. You can't base hundreds of aircraft at a small airfield of course but if you can't defend them anyway, better to have many small dispersed airfields. Smaller they are, the quicker to repair.

But isn't the flip side of that "easier to damage"? The Allies could adapt by splitting up their big raids into smaller ones that hit several airfields at a time.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: kjnoel

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Micheal, what really worries me isn't the loss of planes...is the lack of engineers and the fact that my AFs will remain close for weeks after a single attack!

What size are you building your airfields to? As you have so few engineers I would think it would pay to keep them as small as possible. You can't base hundreds of aircraft at a small airfield of course but if you can't defend them anyway, better to have many small dispersed airfields. Smaller they are, the quicker to repair.

But isn't the flip side of that "easier to damage"? The Allies could adapt by splitting up their big raids into smaller ones that hit several airfields at a time.

Yes, but concentrated 4Es are much tougher to deal with. If 30-40 hit a 27 plane George group, they'll pay for it. This has only happened a few times in my game, as my opponent uses massed 4Es. When I catch them in small groups I've downed 10-12, so around 30% losses for those strikes. The small fields could work, but they will also need to mutually support for the large raids.

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: GreyJoy

Wow. Nice defensive line from Timor to New Guinea. even some of the dot hexes have garrisons. At least he has to fight for the landing sites.

[veji1]

ouch I hadn't realised how badly lack of engineers a role plays. This begs the question : When you don't have enough eng, shouldn't you try to have one or two of your rare engineers unit in a fast reaction force that you could bring by fast transport to one or two of the local AFs when it becomes clear he is making his move ?

Just a thought ?

[Cribtop]

IIRC smaller fields are more easily damaged but also more easily repaired.

[JohnDillworth]

GJ,
I'm curious as to why you have the KB at Truk. Sooner or later a push will be made in the DEI, probably sooner. He probably can't do much in the Central Pacific and even if he did what can he take that is a real threat? The DEI is different. He takes one or two bases and he has the troops and landing craft to just keep rolling you up. He can't really touch the KB with the aircraft he has but if he gets a closer base, that changes. The KB is can really mess up any invasion, even a day or two after the fact. Your LBA,perhaps, but maybe not